Kansas

Patriot League champion Lehigh will play top-ranked Kansas -- the No. 1 seed in the entire tournament -- on Thursday in Oklahoma City in the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, it was disclosed this evening on national television. The 22-10 and 16th-seeded Mountain Hawks will be decided underdogs against the 32-2 Jayhawks, who won the Big 12 Conference title. This marks the fourth time in school history that Lehigh has advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

Kansas center Joel Embiid is expected to meet with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who own the No. 1 pick in the 2014 draft, for an interview and physical. The date and location of the sitdown is unknown but Embiid is expected to be in the mix for the top pick along with Jayhawks teammate Andrew Wiggins, Duke forward Jabari Parker and Kentucky forward Julius Randle. Cleveland could deal the pick if the Cavaliers are able to find a team willing to part with a game-ready veteran. Embiid missed the end of the season due to a stress fracture in his back, and his health is expected to be critical to his draft status.

Less than an hour ago, Lehigh practiced for the final time in preparation for its NCAA Tournament first-round game against Kansas Thursday night at the Ford Center. Barring the biggest upset in tournament history it was the last practice of this season, but the Mountain Hawks still enjoyed the spotlight in the last team practice of the day. There were dunks, swift moves and a somewhat relaxed mood. In a little over 24 hours, the Patriot League champion Mountain Hawks (22-10)

Tevrin Brandon's long, strange trip from Bethlehem Catholic to Connecticut to Monmouth to Kansas City after a canceled journey to Denver is still in progress. The Monmouth University senior cornerback reached an agreement on Saturday night with the Chiefs after not being selected in the 2014 NFL Draft. That was only after the Denver Broncos had first made an offer, then reneged, according to a text message. Brandon and agent Sean Stellato did not return follow-up telephone calls on Sunday.

NEW ORLEANS - Kentucky completed one of the more dominating NCAA Tournament runs in the proud program's history Monday night by beating Kansas, 67-59, to claim its eighth national championship and Coach John Calipari's first. "This is not about me," Calipari told a national television audience upon accepting the championship trophy with his team in the Superdome. "This is about these 13 players. This is about the Big Blue Nation. I don't know of any team that has sacrificed for each other like this team, and they deserve this moment.

Later today, Lehigh's players and coaches will arrive here at Ford Center to meet and greet the media and to practice on the court where Thursday night the Mountain Hawks will attempt the miraculous task of becoming the first No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. No chance? A friendly Oklahoma native who goes by the name "Nova" believes that Lehigh has a chance to stun Kansas Thursday night in a Midwest Region first-round game, scheduled to start shortly after 9:30 p.m. (EST)

KANSAS with Native Window When: 8 p.m. Sunday Where: Sherman Theater, 524 Main St., Stroudsburg How much: $39.50 Set list: Classic hits, such as "Dust in the Wind," "Carry On Wayward Son," "Point of Know Return" and "What's On My Mind" Opening act: Native Window is a side project of band members Rich Williams, Phil Ehart, David Ragsdale and Billy Greer Info: 570-420-2808, http://www.sherman theater.com In the mid 2000s, the 1970s group Kansas was riding another mini-revival of popularity after its song "Dust in the Wind" was used in the movie "Old School," and it went on tour with other '70s acts such as Styx.

The most surprising thing about prog rockers Kansas' concert Saturday at Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem was that this was the same band that played at Musikfest four years ago. More than 35 years into its career, Kansas somehow found rejuvenation Saturday, playing a show that demonstrated rich orchestral playing and a revived intensity, and reminded the crowd of about 1,000 how good its songs are. Virtually everything about the concert was...

In a rock-music world swarming with grunge guitarists, noisy British pop bands and scowling rappers, you would hardly believe there would be room for a band that had packed arenas throughout the 1970s by playing 12-minute songs that owed less to Chuck Berry than to Johannes Brahms. Heck, the members of Kansas hardly believe it themselves. "This wasn't our idea. People came after us to tour. We thought nobody cared," keyboardist Greg Robert said over the telephone recently from his Atlanta, Ga., home.

by ALAN SCULLEY (A free-lance story for The Morning Call) | June 23, 1995

In 1988, when Kansas was finishing up "In The Spirit of Things," drummer and founding member Phil Ehart never dreamed it would be seven years before the band could do another studio disc. The group, which at the time included original members Richard Williams (guitar) and Steve Walsh (vocals and keyboards), along with bassist Billy Greez and guitarist Steve Morse (who was between stints with th Dixie Dregs), had just come off a fairly successful album, "Power." which was released in 1986.

Until this past week, it seemed the only remarkable thing about Great Bend was that it was one of the few big towns (population 16,000) on one of the only roads in western Kansas that do not run exactly north-south or east-west. The road cuts through those monotonous landscapes at an angle, from southwest to northeast, which made it quicker to get back to Interstate 70 during a decidedly unhappy and aborted skiing road trip. A terrible storm had closed I-70 in Colorado, and I drove all the way to Oklahoma looking for another way to get to Vail, or even Telluride.

The Sikh community of Lehigh Valley is deeply grieved by the news of the fatal shootings at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and the Village Shalom senior living facility. We offer our sincere condolences to the victims' families. This senseless killing, singling out Americans at Jewish community organizations, opens up the wounds of the brutal killing of the innocent worshippers at a Sikh Gurdawara in Oak Creek, Wisc., last August. In America, no one has the right to hurt others just because of their faith.

Kansas freshman 7-footer Joel Embiid, considered one of the surprise newcomers in college basketball this season, plans to enter the 2014 NBA Draft according to multiple reports. Yahoo Sports reported Embiid will make a formal announcement as soon as this weekend and he is in the process of selecting an agent. Embiid responded via Twitter on Thursday, telling Chicago prep star Cliff Alexander "haven't made a decision yet. " The 20-year-old Cameroon native told The Sports Xchange in February he would weigh his options after the season and measure those against his development.

More than 340,000 Pennsylvanians could be registered to vote here and in another state, but that does not mean they are fraudulently casting two ballots on election days, according to state officials. Last year, Pennsylvania joined the Interstate Crosscheck Program, administered by the Kansas secretary of state. It seeks to ferret out double-voting by identifying voters who had moved across state lines but remained registered to vote in two places. The program stated in 2005 among a consortium of Midwest states and has grown to 28 states, including many on the East Coast.

The Sports Xchange Kansas freshman center Joel Embiid went to Los Angeles on Monday see a back specialist, but coach Bill Self expects him to be ready for the postseason. Embiid missed the final two games of the regular season with a lower-back injury. He is seeking a second opinion on the status of his injury. "This was the plan all along," Self said. "We don't anticipate anything new, but we owe it to Joel and his family to know exactly what we're dealing with. " Self said he hopes to learn later Monday what the doctor finds out. He did acknowledge that Embiid could miss this week's Big 12 Tournament.

Kendrick Lewis sees the pattern, and really, of course he does. He is the Chiefs' starting free safety and surveys the field 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage. "It's obvious, man," Lewis said after the Chiefs' 41-38 loss to San Diego on Sunday. "You're a man-to-man team, you (beat that with) crossing routes, out routes, pick routes. (San Diego) took whatever they could take from the Denver game and they executed against us. " Much as Denver quarterback Peyton Manning did the week before, San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers carved up the Chiefs' defense for 392 yards and three touchdowns, with a heaping helping of quick-hitting short and intermediate passes.

WHEN: Today 7:05 p.m. WHERE: Stabler Arena RADIO: WEST-AM 1400TV: Service Electric SCOUTING KANSAS: 6-foot-8 Bryant Basemore and 6-5 Martin Lewis each average 16.9 ppg. ... This will be Kansas' sixth game on a seven-game road trip that began May 31. ...The Cagerz made 13 of 16 free throws in the final 3:16 to defeat the ValleyDawgs, 125-120, on May 26 in Salinas. ABOUT THE 'DAWGS: Pennsylvania (13-7) returns to its PuppyHouse with a five-game losing streak. But with 10 games remaining in the regular season still has a 1-game lead over second-place New Jersey (12-9)

Helen Scott of Allentown was recently awarded a certificate of merit in Spanish at a departmental banquet at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. A daughter of Edwin and Virginia Scott, 1017 S. Virginia St., Allentown, she was among 33 students honored.

The Kansas City Chiefs deserve a lot of credit for getting off to a 9-0 start after finishing last season with an NFL-worst record of 2-14. However, they did not invent the U-turn. Although it isn't a common occurrence, several teams have made dramatic one-season turnarounds, sometimes coming out of nowhere to stun the pro football world. Indianapolis did that last season with then-rookie quarterback Andrew Luck, going from 2-14 in 2011 to 11-5 and a playoff berth. The 2008 Miami Dolphins went 11-5, a year after a 1-5 disaster.

Sometimes, our expectations zig and the NFL zags. Like a LeSean McCoy cutback, the league has taken some surprising turns in the first five weeks, with San Francisco stumbling (then regaining its footing), Atlanta doing a face plant, and Andrew Luck-led Indianapolis seamlessly transitioning from Chuckstrong — last season's mantra in honor of ill Coach Chuck Pagano — to Luckstrong. Because it's Week 6, here are six eyebrow-raising developments so far: Hello, Cleveland When they traded running back Trent Richardson and gave the starting quarterback job to Brian Hoyer, the Browns looked like they were waving the white flag.